Wire twisting machine

ABSTRACT

A frame for a creel, the frame comprising an elongated slotted bar suspended on a pair of oscillatable arms depending from coaxial supports and located between a pair of spaced flier arms, and aligned with a twisting die, in combination with a new and improved creel which is easily mounted and abstracted from the creel frame, said creel comprising a generally upright narrow flat member and a disc at each end, the flat creel member having on each side thereof a plurality of spool holders, and guides for the wire from the spools directed to one of the flier arms over sheaves on one of the creel end discs, and through the die where the twisting occurs, the flier arms being rapidly rotated on the axis of the die and of the creel, and means leading the twisted wire longitudinally reversely across the creel to a sheave on the axis of the other flier arm and thence to an external takeup reel or spool.

United States Patent [1 1 Wesson Feb. 12, 11974 [73] Assignee: James Smith & Son, Inc.,

Worcester, Mass.

[22] Filed: Apr. 24, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 246,885

[52] US. Cl 57/58.52, 57/58.63, 57/58.7, 57/58.81 [51] Int. Cl. D07b 3/12, D0lh 7/86 [58] Field of Search 57/58.52, 58.7, 58.54, 58.55, 57/58.57, 58.63, 58.72, 58.78, 58.81

Primary Examiner-John Petrakes Attorney, Agent, or FirmCharles R. Fay

[5 7] ABSTRACT A frame for a creel, the frame comprising an elongated slotted bar suspended on a pair of oscillatable arms depending from coaxial supports and located between a pair of spaced flier arms, and aligned with a twisting die, in combination with a new and improved creel which is easily mounted and abstracted from the creel frame, said creel comprising a generally upright narrow flat member and a disc at each end, the flat creel member having on each side thereof a plurality of spool holders, and guides for the wire from the spools directed to one of the flier arms over sheaves on one of the creel end discs, and through the die where the twisting occurs, the flier arms being rapidly rotated on the axis of the die and of the creel, and means leading the twisted wire longitudinally reversely across the creel to a sheave on the axis of the other flier arm and thence to an external takeup reel or spool.

6 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures WIRE TWISTING MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Wire twisting machines have not advanced very much over old and well known types ordinarily including a single flier arm having a relative large diameter which is very noisy and is consequently run relatively slowly. These old machines are difficult to thread and they do not pull the wire straight, thereby setting up angular wire stresses which are not desired. The relatively large diameter of the old flier arm necessitates a relatively slow speed thereof and their creels are very difficult to remove. In addition in the old machines the creel must be revolved to allow for threading and the creel adjustment, and there are other objections to the old fashioned wire twister which are obviated in the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A machine support is provided for a pair of relatively small diameter widely spaced coaxial rotary flier arms having means for driving the same in unison at a relatively high rate of speed. Mounted to freely oscillate on the axis of the two flier arms there is a creel frame which supports the creel dependently from supports at the axis of the flier arms, so that the longitudinal center of the creel, which is very long, co-inciding in general with the axis of the flier arms and also of the twisting die, which is coaxial, and adjacent to one of the creel frame supports adjacent one of the flier arms.

.The creel itself is a flat sheet-like member which is easily lifted into and out of the depending creel supporting member of the creel mounting frame. At each side of this plate there are provided a plurality of preferably in line spool mounting means having takeup friction devices to prevent overrunning. At the ends of the flat member there are discs and one disc has wire guides leading wire from each spool to the twisting die.

The wire guides on the creel disc are sheaves and they lead the wires to other sheaves on the face of the disc directing the wires individually into the single wire twisting die, on the axis of a flier arm, being thence directed to a sheave on the periphery of the flier arm, whence it is directed in a reverse direction back over the creel in close relationship thereto to the other flier arm at the opposite end of the creel thereby receiving an additional twist whereby the machine is referred to as a two-for-one twister. The double twisted wire is then directed inwardly of the last-named flier arm to the general axis of the flier arms and thence onward to a takeup spool.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a view in front elevation illusrating the novel wire twisting machine;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are sectional views on respective lines in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the creel showing spools in place thereon;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view on line 55 in FIG. 4, and

FIG. 6 is a sectional view on line 66 in FIG. 4.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Any kind of machine frame that is desired may be used which presents the creel to be described at a convenient level for the operator of the machine. Mounted on this machine frame there are a pair of bearings 10 and 12 and through each of these bearings there is extended a drive shaft 14 and 16 respectively, that are driven in unison to cause the flier arms 18 and 20 to be rotated together at the same rate of speed. It will be seen that these flier arms are relatively widely spaced as compared to the prior art.

Dependently mounted from each bearing housing 10 and 12 in any manner desired there is a creel support arm 22, 24 and these are connected by a vertically slotted creel support 26, see particularly FIG. 2. This creel mounting frame, comprising the end members 22, 24 and longitudinal double member 26, depends from and is oscillatable on the axis of the shafts and flier arms described, and receives in its slot, which is indicated at 28 in FIG. 2, the flat plate 30 which forms the part of the creel upon which wire spools 32, 32 are mounted by conventional spool mounting means. These spool mounting means include tensionbelts 36 or the like, these being well known and serving to snub or break the reels to prevent overrunning.

The plate 30 has at each end thereof a generally circular disc 38, 40. The plate 38 does not have any sheaves, but the plate 40 is provided with a plurality of sheaves 42 on tangential axes and located in radial slots 44 in the periphery of the disc 40. The disc 40 also has a series of closely spaced radially arranged sheaves 48 mounted on the surface thereof which faces flier arm 20. The wire twisting die 50 is mounted coaxially with the flier arm 20 and allows the wire to be pulled directly off from the spools.

With the spools in place as shown, the operator threads the various wires as at 52. 54, 56, and 58, see FIG. 1, over sheaves 42 down under sheaves 48, into the die, over a reversing sheave 60 loated in bearing housing 12. As the flier arms are rotated, the wire is twisted axially with relation to the drive shaft for the flier arms, etc. The twisted wire then extends outwardly radially over directional sheaves 60 and 62 and passes over the entire creel completely avoiding the same to a similar directional sheave 64 in flier arm 18, whence it is directed inwardly under direction sheave 66 in bearing housing 10 on to takeup spool or reel 68.

It will be seen that the spools allow the wire to be pulled straight and without setting up angular wire stresses as in the prior art and much smaller flier arms can be used for greater speed with less noise.

The creel 30, 38, 40 is essentially very simple and is mounted on the double member 26 with a single fastener at 70 to hold it in position. The discs at 38 and 40 are provided with similar peripheral slots 72 to rest on the end portions of the double member 26, see FIG. 3, and hold the device in position even without the fastener 70 and this gives a two point suspension, but including fastener 70 a three-point suspension is provided so that the creel is simply removed by removing the fastener 70 in order to pick the creel upwardly out of its support when necessary.

Also this machine provides a longer lead length of wire from the spools to the die preventing or at least minimizing an unwanted twist which runs back to the spool. The creel can be threaded and adjusted without revolving it which is a great advantage in this art and gives the operator more room for threading, adjusting, etc.

I claim:

1. Wire twisting machine comprising a pair of spaced parallel flier arms mounted coaxially, means to drive the flier arms in unison, and a peripheral wire guide on each flier arm, said wire guides being correspondingly arranged,

a coaxial wire twisting die adjacent one of the flier arms, a depending oscillating creel frame arm mounted coaxially and adjacent each one of the flier arms, a creel supporting member extending between and connecting said depending creel frame arms,

and a removalble creel mounted on said member, said creel comprising a generally flat plate and a pair of outstanding disc-like members at each end thereof, one of said disc members being located adjacent the wire twisting die, and the other disc member being located remote with respect thereto but closely adjacent the other flier arm,

wire guiding means at the periphery of the said one disc member adjacent the wire twisting die, wire spool holding means on said plate, spools, means guiding wire from the spools over the peripherally arranged wire guides on the said one creel disc member to and through the die, thence to the peripheral wire guide on the adjacent flier arm, and means guiding the twisted wire to a storage point,

the creel supporting member being slotted longitudinally and receiving the flat plate at its edge and the two disc-like end members of the creel, supporting the creel in two positions at the ends of the creel.

2. The wire twisting machine of claim 1 including wire guides on the surface of the said one creel disc member, said wire guides being located radially inwardly of the peripheral wire guiding means.

3. The wire twisting machine of claim 1 wherein the wire guide at the periphery of the other flier arm guides the twisted wire in a reverse direction with respect to the initial run of the wire on the creel and over the creel, avoiding the creel.

4. The wire twisting machine of claim 1 including a single fastener for securing the creel with respect to the creel supporting member.

5. The wire twisting machine of claim 1 wherein the wire guiding means at the periphery of the said one disc member of the creel comprise sheaves located on tangential axes.

6. The wire twisting machine of claim 1 including wire guides on the surface of the said one creel disc-like member, located radialy inwardly with respect to the periphery thereof and leading the individual wires directly into the wire twisting die. 

1. Wire twisting machine comprising a pair of spaced parallel flier arms mounted coaxially, means to drive the flier arms in unison, and a peripheral wire guide on each flier arm, said wire guides being correspondingly arranged, a coaxial wire twisting die adjacent one of the flier arms, a depending oscillating creel frame arm mounted coaxially and adjacent each one of the flier arms, a creel supporting member extending between and connecting said depending creel frame arms, and a removalble creel mounted on said member, said creel comprising a generally flat plate and a pair of outstanding disc-like members at each end thereof, one of said disc members being located adjacent the wire twisting die, and the other disc member being located remote with respect thereto but closely adjacent the other flier arm, wire guiding means at the periphery of the said one disc member adjacent the wire twisting die, wire spool holding means on said plate, spools, means guiding wire from the spools over the peripherally arranged wire guides on the said one creel disc member to and through the die, thence to the peripheral wire guide on the adjacent flier arm, and means guiding the twisted wire to a storage point, the creel supporting member being slotted longitudinally and receiving the flat plate at its edge and the two disc-like end members of the creel, supporting the creel in two positions at the ends of the creel.
 2. The wire twisting machine of claim 1 including wire guides on the surface of the said one creel disc member, said wire guides being located radially inwardly of the peripheral wire guiding means.
 3. The wire twisting machine of claim 1 wherein the wire guide at the periphery of the other flier arm guides the twisted wire in a reverse direction with respect to the initial run of the wire on the creel and over the creel, avoiding the creel.
 4. The wire twisting machine of claim 1 including a single fastener for securing the creel with respect to the creel supporting member.
 5. The wire twisting machine of claim 1 wherein the wire guiding means at the periphery of the said one disc member of the creel comprise sheaves located on tangential axes.
 6. The wire twisting machine of claim 1 including wire guides on the surface of the said one creel disc-like member, located radialy inwardly with respect to the periphery thereof and leading the individual wires directly into the wire twisting die. 